Practical exhortations flowing from doctrinal instruction as to
dangers; running the race set before us

The epistle now enters on the practical exhortations that flow
from its doctrinal instruction, with reference to the dangers
peculiar to the Hebrew Christians -- instruction suited throughout
to inspire them with courage. Surrounded with a cloud of witnesses
like these of Hebrews 11, who all declared the advantages of a life
of faith in promises still unfulfilled, they ought to feel
themselves impelled to follow their steps, running with patience
the race set before them, and above all looking away from every
difficulty* to Jesus, who had run the whole career of faith,
sustained by the joy that was set before Him, and, having reached
the goal, had taken His seat in glory at the right hand of
God.

{*It is not insensibility to them, but, when they are felt to be
there, looking from them to Christ. This is the secret of
faith. "Be careful for nothing" need not have been said, if nothing
had been there calculated to awaken care. Abraham considered not
his body now dead.}

The Lord's example as having run the whole career of faith

This passage presents the Lord, not as He who bestows faith, but
as He who has Himself run the whole career of faith. Others had
travelled a part of the road, had surmounted some difficulties; the
obedience and the perseverance of the Lord had been subjected to
every trial of which human nature is susceptible. Men, the
adversary, the being forsaken of God, everything was against
Him. His disciples flee when He is in danger, His intimate friend
betrays Him; He looks for some one to have compassion on Him and
finds no one. The fathers (of whom we read in the previous chapter)
trusted in God and were delivered, but as for Jesus, He was a worm,
and no man; His throat was dry with crying. His love for us, His
obedience to His Father, surmounted all. He carries off the victory
by submission, and takes His seat in a glory exalted in proportion
to the greatness of His abasement and obedience, the only just
reward for having perfectly glorified God where He had been
dishonoured by sin. The joy and the rewards that are set before us
are never the motives of the walk of faith -- we know this well
with regard to Christ, but it is not the less true in our own case
-- they are the encouragement of those who walk in it.

Jesus, then, who has attained the glory due to Him, becomes an
example to us in the sufferings through which He passed in
attaining it; therefore we are neither to lose courage nor to grow
weary. We have not yet, like Him, lost our lives in order to
glorify God and to serve Him. The way in which the apostle engages
them to disentangle themselves from every hindrance, whether sin or
difficulty, is remarkable; as though they had nothing to do but to
cast them off as useless weights. And in fact, when we look at
Jesus, nothing is easier; when we are not looking at Him, nothing
more impossible.

What is to be cast off; the way and power to do it

There are two things to be cast off: every weight, and the sin
that would entangle our feet (for he speaks of one who is running
in the race). The flesh, the human heart, is occupied with cares
and difficulties; and the more we think of them, the more we are
burdened by them. It is enticed by the object of its desires, it
does not free itself from them. The conflict is with a heart that
loves the thing against which we strive; we do not separate
ourselves from it in thought. When looking at Jesus, the new man is
active; there is a new object, which unburdens and detaches us from
every other by means of a new affection which has its place in a
new nature: and in Jesus Himself, to whom we look, there is a
positive power which sets us free.

It is by casting it all off in an absolute way that the thing is
easy -- by looking at that which fills the heart with other things,
and occupies it in a different sphere, where a new object and a new
nature act upon each other; and in that object there is a positive
power which absorbs the heart and shuts out all objects that act
merely on the old nature. What is felt to be a weight is easily
cast off. Everything is judged of by its bearing on the object we
aim at. If I run in a race and all my thought is the prize, a bag
of gold is readily cast away. It is a weight. But we must look to
Jesus. Only in Him can we cast off every hindrance easily and
without reservation. We cannot combat sin by the flesh.

Trials that must be borne; God's chastisement neither to be
despised nor be discouraged by it; its purpose

But there is another class of trials that come from without:
they are not to be cast off, they must be borne. Christ, as we have
seen, went through them. We have not like Him resisted even to the
shedding of our blood rather than fail in faithfulness and
obedience. Now God acts in these trials as a father. He chastises
us. They come perhaps, as in the case of Job, from the enemy, but
the hand and the wisdom of God are in them. He chastises those whom
He loves. We must therefore neither despise the chastisement nor be
discouraged by it. We must not despise it, for He does not chastise
without a motive or a cause (moreover, it is God who does it); nor
must we be discouraged, for He does it in love.

If we lose our life for the testimony of the Lord and in
resisting sin, the warfare is ended; and this is not chastisement,
but the glory of suffering with Christ. Death in this case is the
negation of sin. He who has died is free from sin; he who has
suffered in the flesh has done with sin. But up to that point, the
flesh in practice (for we have a right to reckon ourselves dead) is
not yet destroyed; and God knows how to unite the manifestation of
the faithfulness of the new man who suffers for the Lord, with the
discipline by which the flesh is mortified. For example, Paul's
thorn in the flesh united these two things. It was painful to him
in the exercise of his ministry, for it was something that tended
to make him contemptible when preaching (and this he endured for
the Lord's sake), but at the same time it kept his flesh in
check.

God's purposes of holiness; the fruits of soul-exercise

Verse 9. Now we are subject to our natural parents, who
discipline us after their own will: how much more then to the
Father of spirits,* who makes us partakers of His own holiness!
Observe here the grace that is appealed to. We have seen how much
the Hebrews needed warning -- their tendency was to fail in the
career of faith. The means of preventing this is doubtless not to
spare warning, but yet to bring the soul fully into connection with
grace. This alone can give strength and courage through confidence
in God.

{*"Father of spirits" is simply in contrast with "fathers of
our flesh."}

We are not come to Mount Sinai, to the law which makes demands
on us, but to Sion, where God manifested His power in
re-establishing Israel by His grace in the person of the elect
king, when, as to the responsibility of the people, all was
entirely lost, all relationship with God impossible on that
footing, for the ark was lost; there was no longer a mercy-seat, no
longer a throne of God among the people. Ichabod was written on
Israel.

Therefore in speaking of holiness he says, God is active in
love towards you, even in your very sufferings. It is He who has
not only given free access to Himself, by the blood and by the
presence of Christ in heaven for us, but who is continually
occupied with all the details of your life; whose hand is in all
your trials, who thinks unceasingly about you, in order to make you
partakers of His holiness. This is not to require holiness on our
part -- necessary as it must ever be -- it is in order to make us
partakers of His own holiness. What immense and perfect grace! What
a means! It is the means by which to enjoy God Himself perfectly.

Verse 11. God does not expect us to find these exercises of soul
pleasant at the moment (they would not produce their effect if they
were so): but afterwards, the will being broken they produce the
peaceable fruits of righteousness. The pride of man is brought down
when he is obliged to submit to that which is contrary to his will.
God also takes a larger (ever precious) place in his thoughts and
in his life.

Grace the motive for the path of faith and godliness

Verse 12. On the principle then of grace, the Hebrews are
exhorted to encourage themselves in the path of faith, and to watch
against the buddings of sin among them, whether in yielding to the
desires of the flesh, or in giving up christian privileges for
something of the world. They were to walk so courageously that
their evident joy and blessing (which is always a distinct
testimony and one that triumphs over the enemy) should make the
weak feel that it was their own assured portion also; and thus
strength and healing would be administered to them instead of
discouragement. The path of godliness as to circumstances was to be
made easy, a beaten path to weak and lame souls; and they would
feel more than stronger souls the comfort and value of such a
path.

Grace, we have already said, is the motive given for this walk;
but grace is here presented in a form that requires to be
considered a little in detail.

Mt. Sinai contrasted with Mt. Sion

We are not come, it says, to Mount Sinai. There the terrors of
the majesty of God kept man at a distance. No one was to approach
Him. Even Moses feared and trembled at the presence of
Jehovah. This is not where the Christian is brought. But, in
contrast with such relationships as these with God, the whole
millennial state in all its parts is developed; according however
to the way in which these different parts are now known as things
hoped for. We belong to it all; but evidently these things are not
yet established. Let us name them: Sion; the heavenly Jerusalem;
the angels and general assembly; the church of the firstborn, whose
names are inscribed in heaven; God the Judge of all; the spirits of
the just made perfect; Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant; and
finally, the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than
that of Abel.

Sion we have spoken of as a principle. It is the intervention of
sovereign grace (in the king) after the ruin, and in the midst of
the ruin, of Israel, re-establishing the people according to the
counsels of God in glory, and their relationships with God
Himself. It is the rest of God on the earth, the seat of the
Messiah's royal power. But, as we know, the extent of the earth is
far from being the limits of the Lord's inheritance. Sion on earth
is Jehovah's rest; it is not the city of the living God -- the
heavenly Jerusalem is that, the heavenly capital, so to speak, of
His kingdom, the city that has foundations, whose founder and
builder is God Himself.

The assembly of the firstborn in heaven; their portion; God the
judge of all and those owned as His before the heavenly assembly
was revealed

Having named Sion below, the author turns naturally to Jerusalem
above, but this carries him into heaven, and he finds himself with
all the people of God, in the midst of a multitude of angels, the
great universal assembly* of the invisible world. There is however
one peculiar object on which his eye rests in this marvellous and
heavenly scene. It is the assembly of the firstborn whose names are
inscribed in heaven. They were not born there, not indigenous like
the angels, whom God preserved from falling. They are the objects
of the counsels of God. It is not merely that they reach heaven:
they are the glorious heirs and firstborn of God, according to His
eternal counsels, in accordance with which they are registered in
heaven. The assembly composed of the objects of grace, now called
in Christ, belongs to heaven by grace. They are not the objects of
the promises, who, not having received the fulfilment of the
promises on earth, do not fail to enjoy them in heaven. They have
the anticipation of no other country or citizenship than
heaven. The promises were not addressed to them. They have no place
on earth. Heaven is prepared for them by God Himself. Their names
are inscribed there by Him. It is the highest place in heaven above
the dealings of God in government, promise, and law on the
earth. This leads the picture of glory on to God Himself. But
(having reached the highest point, that which is most excellent in
grace) He is seen under another character, namely, as the Judge of
all, as looking down from on high to judge all that is below. This
introduces another class of these blessed inhabitants of the
heavenly glory: those whom the righteous Judge owned as His before
the heavenly assembly was revealed, the spirits of the just arrived
at perfection. They had finished their course, they had overcome in
conflict, they were waiting only for glory. They had been connected
with the dealings of God on the earth, but -- faithful before the
time for its blessing was come -- they had their rest and their
portion in heaven.

{*The word here translated "assembly" was that of all the states
of Greece; that of the "firstborn" is the word for the assembly of
citizens of any particular state.}

The new covenant and its mediator; the shed blood of Christ crying for pardon and peace

It was the purpose of God nevertheless to bless the earth. He
could not do so according to man's responsibility: His people even
were but as grass. He would therefore establish a new covenant with
Israel, a covenant of pardon, and according to which He would write
the law in the hearts of His people. The Mediator of this covenant
had already appeared and had done all that was required for its
establishment. The saints among the Hebrews were come to the
Mediator of the new covenant: blessing was thus prepared for the
earth and secured to it.

Finally, the blood of Christ had been shed on earth, as that of
Abel by Cain; but, instead of crying from the earth for vengeance,
so that Cain became a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth (a
striking type of the Jew, guilty of the death of Christ), it is
grace that speaks; and the shed blood cries to obtain pardon and
peace for those who shed it.

The present condition before earthly blessing comes; the
shaking of all things announced; Christ's kingdom immovable; the
character of our God; consequent fitting service

It will be observed that, although speaking of the different
parts of millennial blessing, with its foundations, all is given
according to the present condition of things, before the coming of
that time of blessing from God. We are in it as to our
relationships; but the spirits of the just men of the Old Testament
only are here spoken of, and only the Mediator of this new
covenant: the covenant itself is not established. The blood cries,
but the answer in earthly blessing has not yet come. This is
easily understood. It is exactly according to the existing state of
things, and even throws considerable light on the position of the
Hebrew Christians and on the doctrine of the epistle. The important
thing for them was, that they should not turn away from Him who
spoke from heaven. It was with Him they had to do. We have seen
them connected with all that went before, with the Lord's testimony
on earth; but in fact they had to do at that time with the Lord
Himself as speaking from heaven. His voice then shook the earth;
but now, speaking with the authority of grace and from heaven, He
announced the dissolution of everything which the flesh could lean
upon, or on which the creature could rest its hopes.

All that could be shaken should be dissolved. How much more
fatal to turn away from Him that speaketh now, than from the
commandments even of Sinai! This shaking of all things (whether
here or in the analogous passage in 2 Peter) evidently goes beyond
Judaism, but has a peculiar application to it. Judaism was the
system and the frame of the relationships of God with men on earth
according to the principle of responsibility on their part. All
this was of the first creation, but its springs were poisoned;
heaven, the seat of the enemy's power, perverted and corrupted; the
heart of man on earth was corrupt and rebellious. God will shake
and change all things. The result will be a new creation in which
righteousness shall dwell.

Meanwhile the first fruits of this new creation were being
formed; and in Christianity God was forming the heavenly part of
the kingdom that cannot be moved; and Judaism -- the centre of the
earthly system and of human responsibility -- was passing away. The
apostle therefore announces the shaking of all things -- that
everything which exists as the present creation shall be set
aside. With regard to the present fact he says only, "we receive a
kingdom that cannot be moved"; and calls us to serve God with true
piety, because our God is a consuming fire; not -- as people say --
God out of Christ, but our God. This is His character in holy
majesty and in righteous judgment of evil.